1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle parking system, and primarily to a car parking system. More specifically, the invention relates to a parking system in which a mobile telephone can be used for commencing and terminating a parking period.
2. Description of the Related Art
In cities, towns and other municipalities there will be one or more vehicle parking companies who has/have parking meters, so-called pay meters, distributed throughout the city or town in a number of different places, streets, roads and large parking areas are the most common places in this regard.
In recent times, it has become more and more usual to pay parking fees with different types of bank card or cash card, as a supplement to coin payment. When a cash card is used, the person parking a vehicle will draw the card through a card reader on the parking meter.
A known paying system is so arranged that the person parking a vehicle will draw the card through a card reader on the parking meter, whereupon the meter stores the number of the cash card and the time at which the card was read.
The parking meter then issues a receipt, which is placed inwardly of the windshield where it can be seen. When collecting the vehicle, the person concerned must return to the pay meter and again draw the cash card through the card reader of said meter. The pay meter therewith again stores the number of the cash card and compares the time in question with the time at which the cash card was earlier drawn through the card reader. The pay meter then calculates the parking fee and stores the fee together with the number of the card to be charged, and issues a receipt.
All known cash card Systems that use a subsequent billing routine are based on the principle of requiring the person parking a vehicle to visit a parking meter both when commencing a parking period and when terminating said period.
There is known to the art a vehicle parking system in which a parking period is commenced and terminated with the aid of a mobile telephone. According to one such known system described in International Patent Publication No. WO 93/20539 there is sent at the commencement and termination of each parking period, via the mobile telephone, a code that identifies the parking place used, a code that identifies the vehicle concerned, and a code unique to the driver of the vehicle. It is proposed that the fee for parking the vehicle is billed through the standard telephone billing system.
A system of that kind is not easily administered, since the system presumes that at least that the parking company signs some form of agreement with the telephone company. However, the telephone company has no interest in performing billing services without being remunerated.
Furthermore, the system requires the use of many identification items, which renders use of the system unwieldy. These problems are solved by the present invention.
The present invention thus relates to a parking system in which parking of a vehicle can be commenced and terminated through the medium of a mobile telephone, and where at the commencement and termination of a parking period a user of the system sends at least one code to a receiving computer via a mobile telephone system or a fixed telephone system, when a user wishes to connect himself/herself to the parking system in order to be able to park his/her vehicle with the aid of a telephone, either a pay meter, a cash card terminal or the like, mechanically reads a cash card owned by the user and accepted by the parking system as a means of payment. Data read from the card is stored in a database belonging to the computer of the parking company, and at least one user. Specific reference is stored in and tied together with said data in the database.